The Flea Theater

The Flea Theater is a new home for the off-off Broadway incubator that supports emerging talent and the broader New York theater and performing arts community. An ambitious adaptive reuse, the three-theater complex celebrates the friction between old and new.

The new building intertwines three theaters – the Sam, the Pete, and the Siggy – with offices, costume shop, dressing rooms and a green room, providing infrastructure to support active performing arts throughout the building.

From the lobby, a steel and wood stair rises up to the Sam – a 120-seat, flexible black box theater.

The Pete is a 40-seat, ground floor, indoor-outdoor theater, that extends directly from the building lobby.

The Siggy is a 46-seat intimate theater, defined by restored masonry arches that formed parts of the cellar level of the former hospital on this site. The stage celebrates what was once the rear façade of the building, its openings defining portals to front and rear stage.

As the fourth building on the site, the project draws from the previous 1940s business / warehouse structure, built upon the remains of a larger mid-to-late 1800s tenement, which was built on the foundations of a late 1700s hospital.

Each theater is defined by a simple and neutral palette for scenic flexibility, and fitted with pipe grids, equipment, and lighting. The building is certified LEED Silver.